Fact: Local Councils can take a principled stand against the Government cuts by making a decision not to co-operate and to set budgets based on need. The local elections in May can provide them with a mandate to do this. Such a stand will affirm what we all feel in our guts – that the cuts are unjust and that there is another way. It will empower the whole community to unite and fight for justice on a single issue.
Greetings citizens!
We have listened to our local councillors’ complaints about the 25% (in Nottingham) reduction in funding from the Government (and further reductions in 2012 and 2013) and we have listened to how difficult it has been for them to have to choose between valuable public services. But they are not the victims here; they are the ones who can make a difference. Instead of giving up without a fight and following the government line, they have the power to set the agenda. The question should not be, how much can we cut from domestic violence services or homelessness projects or day care facilities etc. The question must be, how can we defend all our services, maintain our social infrastructure which exists as the result of years of social investment and show complete solidarity with the most vulnerable in our society.
”Riding it out” over the next 5 years does not answer this question. It abandons the most vulnerable to bear the brunt of others’ mistakes, it leaves groups to campaign on their own against each other for massively reduced funds – local library against local library, voluntary sector against public sector, women’s refuges against day centres, it fails to challenge the vicious stereotyping and misinformation that the Government uses to justify these cuts, and it guarantees the destruction of our social infrastructure. Passing on those cuts is divisive, disempowering, inefficient and an abdication of responsibility.
Our Government have failed to take leadership and grasp the nettle of dealing with the banking crisis, instead they pretend to be tough by passing on the costs of this crisis to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society – to those who have the smallest voice, the least power and no lobby or mates in the cabinet.
If the Government won’t grasp the nettle, our Local Councils need to. This is a matter of principle. They need to say “No! - The buck stops here – we refuse to pass this on.” They can do this by setting a budget which is based on need. The whole community – service users, school, college, university students, public sector, private sector and voluntary sector employees, parents, carers etc, can then unite to fight for the resources to implement this needs budget. History has shown that taking such principled stands can make a difference – Poplar Council in the 1920s and Liverpool and Lambeth Council in the 1980s. Liverpool Council succeeded in getting an extra £60 million from Margaret Thatcher’s government. What is there to lose? Local Councils say that if they do this, commissioners will be called in. Would we let this happen? If it did happen, how will we be any worse off than now?
It’s true that local councils have already passed their budget for 2011/12, but there is a local election in May. This is an opportunity for local councillors to offer an alternative and let the community decide.
Ω Ω Ω Ω Over and out Ω Ω Ω Ω
Ω Ω Ω Ω Over and out Ω Ω Ω Ω
